


Love Me

by Lavender_Wynter



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 16:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4712477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_Wynter/pseuds/Lavender_Wynter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kisuke helps Yoruichi figure a way out of a traditional bind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Me

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place before Yoruichi became Captain of the Second Division. All mistakes are my own. Not beta-read.

Urahara Kisuke chased Shihōin Yoruichi through the forest at breakneck speed, even for shunpo. “Rui! Wait!” Kisuke called. “Please, stop! What’s wrong?” Kisuke desperately tried catching an arm or a wrist, but Yoruichi would spin away and stepped into another shunpo. Gritting his teeth against exhaustion, Kisuke stepped into his next shunpo and collided into Yoruichi at the other side, knocking the slender frame into the ground with bouncing impact. He desperately hoped he didn’t break anything.

Air left Yoruichi’s lungs in a grunt, and Kisuke crashed down on top of her in a death grip of a hug, words of apology flowing frantically from his mouth. Yoruichi tried to get him off her with hard jabs to the torso, but when that didn’t work, she drove her elbows into the meaty parts of his shoulders. “Urgh! Nnngh!” Kisuke groaned and grunted, but held on and panted through the pain. “Rui! Wh… wh… what’s… wrong?” Kisuke gasped.

Yoruichi went limp, chest heaving under Kisuke as she ate the sweet taste of oxygen. “Let me go, Kisuke.” The murmur was a mixture of anger, frustration, and exhaustion. Kisuke had chased Yoruichi for well over two hours, matched hakuda with her even though he knew she could beat him to a pulp, and as much as she might push herself and him, Kisuke wasn’t who she was trying to outrun. Yoruichi wanted to cry, scream, destroy… but what’s the use? It won’t change her fate.

“No, Rui. Not like this,” Kisuke’s head lifted from the junction of Yoruichi’s neck and shoulder. “Please, tell me what’s wrong,” Kisuke begged. Tears glistened in gray eyes and golden hair was plastered to Kisuke’s face and neck from sweat. Kisuke rained gentle kisses all over Yoruichi’s face, ending at her soft lips. Yoruichi’s head came off the ground as she ground her mouth into Kisuke’s, clinging onto the taste she had learned and memorized since her body blossomed into womanhood. Reluctantly, Yoruichi broke the kiss off when muscles in her body demanded more air than what her nose could channel.

“What’s the use? It won’t change anything,” Yoruichi whispered.

“Rui… Please…” Kisuke’s voice shook, and Yoruichi could feel the trembling of his exhausted muscles. Yoruichi couldn’t help the small smile. Kisuke was the only one who could keep up with her shunpo, and his close quarter combat skills have improved drastically since they began sparring years ago. He was excellent at kidō, but he had never used that against her.

“Let me up, Kisuke,” Yoruichi gently commanded.

“Only if you promise you’ll stay and talk to me,” Kisuke kissed Yoruichi’s forehead. Yoruichi inhaled and exhaled a heaving sigh, the resolve to run cracking and breaking under Kisuke’s gentle stubbornness. This was the reason why it hurt so damn much. He never gave up, not for her.

“Why, Kisuke? Why do you care so much?” Yoruichi asked, knowing the answer but needing to hear it.

“You know why. I love you. Always have. Always will,” Kisuke murmured, resolve, tenderness, and truth laced in that soft tenor. Yoruichi loved and hated those words at that moment. Those words made up her entire world, a world that seems so desperately out of reach that pain exploded once more in her chest and flashed through her veins. Her fists clenched, her muscles tightened, and Yoruichi wanted to destroy a few worlds for the helplessness she felt. “Rui?” Kisuke’s golden eyebrows knitted in concern.

“Let me up, Kisuke. I promise I won’t run, but let’s go to our place.”

Kisuke lifted his head to look into Yoruichi’s eyes before untangling himself from the small body and climbing to his feet, his usual grace disrupted by exhaustion and bruises he can feel patterned across his skin. Bending, he helped Yoruichi to her feet and gently dusted her clothes off, ignoring the dirt, leaves, and broken twigs clinging to his own clothes. Yoruichi returned the favor with a laugh as Kisuke grinned sheepishly. Intertwining their fingers together, Yoruichi stepped into a shunpo for the cave Kisuke made under the Sōkyoku Hill.

Kisuke got Yoruichi comfortable in their hideout, chuckled at the rumbling of Yoruichi’s stomach, made her promise she wouldn’t disappear on him the moment he turned around, and went off to fix something to eat and drink for the two of them. Upon his return, Yoruichi was staring at something only she could see and the usual glow of her face had completely disappeared, replaced by a sadness he had seen too much of lately. Kisuke felt his heart wrench itself sideways, twisted, and did a backward flip before dropping into his gut like a slimy rock. Whatever was wrong, Kisuke vowed to right it. He never wanted to see Yoruichi like this again. “Here, eat, Rui,” Kisuke said as he slid a plate of tropical mango and strawberries towards her. He knew she wasn’t much for fruit, but those two things she’ll eat by the pound.

“It’s creepy when you stare at me like that, Kisuke,” Yoruichi mumbled after she swallowed a mouthful of mango. Kisuke sipped at the orange spiced tea he made for himself.

“I can’t help it. You’re beautiful.”

“Then be more subtle about it, Kisuke,” Yoruichi stuffed a fat strawberry into her mouth next.

“How? Teach me,” Kisuke blinked eyes at her in an act of untrained innocence. Yoruichi threw a piece of mango at him. Kisuke caught it with a chuckle and bit into it. Yoruichi smiled for a brief second then ate the rest of the fruit in silence under Kisuke’s watchful eyes.

Kisuke sighed inwardly. It didn’t take much to figure out what was troubling Yoruichi. Ever since the heads of the Shihōin Family started shopping around for a suitor, so to speak, Kisuke had been finding her holed up here more and more, practicing on her hakuda or shunpo or both if he was there. Kisuke understood, better than anyone really, what that all meant. He loved her, but to the heir of the Shihōin Clan, that love will never reach any form of fruition. The authoritarian powers that be simply will not grant serendipity leeway of any sort. Kisuke sternly told his heart not to break at that thought. He can break apart in his own time. Right now, he had to help Yoruichi out of this emotional tumble.

When everything had been eaten, mostly by Yoruichi, Kisuke got up to clear everything away and returned with a fresh pot of hot water for their teas. Then Kisuke slid into the overstuffed seat, turned sideways, and dragged an unresisting Yoruichi up against him. He rubbed everywhere he could reach, planted kisses in her hair and on her temples, then holding her hands and wrapping both their arms around her, Kisuke finally gave voice to the question he did not want to ask, “What is it that had you running so hard?”

Kisuke felt Yoruichi’s fingers clench between his own, inhaled a deep, shuddering breath, and buried her face in his neck. After enough time for new stars to be created, Yoruichi finally stirred.

“A suitor’s proposal has been accepted…” Yoruichi left it at that.

Cracks and fractures could be heard from Kisuke’s chest as his heart broke, the pain a searing ice sped from the core of his being to his extremities. He hugged Yoruichi closer. Kisuke fought back his own tears, but the struggle was not lost on the petite woman.

“So that’s why you were running from me,” was all Kisuke could offer after the silence threatened to smother them both. Yoruichi twisted in his arms so she could look into those wet, stormy eyes.

“Kisuke, I wasn’t running from you.”

“Then why wouldn’t you stop when I asked you to?” Kisuke tipped Yoruichi’s head for access to her long throat. “You ran…” A gentle suck. “…for all you were worth.” A lick. “Gave me enough…” A tongue dipped into the hollow in her throat. Yoruichi moaned. “… bruises to last me…” A trail of kisses against the jaw. “…a month.” Lips met opened lips in a deep kiss. “Why?” Half-lidded gray eyes stared into piercing golden ones.

“Kisuke…” A determination seeped into Yoruichi’s voice. Kisuke pulled back with fully opened eyes, a look he only gets when focusing intently on something of extreme interest.

“Yes, Rui?” Kisuke waited in anticipation of Yoruichi’s next words.

“Let’s sabotage it,” Yoruichi answered. Kisuke’s heart skipped a beat. He wasn’t sure he heard Yoruichi right.

“What?”

“Let’s sabotage him, and any others,” Yoruichi repeated herself. “I don’t want any of them.” While it was a far cry from Yoruichi saying that Kisuke was the only one she ever wanted, he didn’t care. She only ever let him hold her this way. His mind whirled, split between jumping for joy and plotting the worst possible non-death for any of the suitors contemplating a proposal.

“What do you have in mind?” Kisuke murmured, nuzzling his nose through soft purple strands of hair.

“I don’t know. You’re the smart one,” Yoruichi replied, relaxing into Kisuke’s hold. Kisuke’s frame shook with a rumbling laugh.

“Oh sure. You decide to cause trouble. Want me to plan it. I’m agreeing, and I’m the smart one?” Kisuke’s eyes widened in comical, mock horror, “You know I’m completely expendable to them, right?”

“You know I’ve got your back, Kisuke. They won’t touch you,” Yoruichi pinched Kisuke’s nose between her bent fore and middle fingers affectionately.

“If you say so, Rui-sama… Hm…” Kisuke thoughtfully mumbled. Yoruichi scowled at the title and smacked his thigh. “Ouch! Bruise!”

Yoruichi rubbed the spot she assaulted, as if in apology, but not quite. “Any ideas?”

“I think so. Ever heard of Homer?” Kisuke asked, thumb rubbing slow circles on Yoruichi’s hand.

“Who?”

Kisuke chuckled, “Nevermind. Homer was a poet who lived something like two thousand years ago. He wrote the _Odyssey,_ and Ukitake-san had managed to get his hands on a copy from the real world. I borrowed it a while back when he was done with it.”

“Uh huh,” Yoruichi said, trying to cover the boredom in her voice. Kisuke’s chuckle turned into a rumbling laugh.

“Anyway, in this story is a Greek hero named Odysseus. He was called to fight in the Trojan War…” Kisuke smiled as he watched Yoruichi’s head dip-bobbed in her tiredness on his chest. Gods, how he loves these moments.

“He did not return for over a decade, and his wife Penelope had no less than a hundred and eight suitors fighting for her hand in marriage. She didn’t want to marry any of them, choosing to remain faithful to her husband and believe that one day, he will return…” Kisuke resisted the urge to run his fingers through Yoruichi’s hair like one would scratch a cat’s head.

Yoruichi perked back up at the mention of unwanted suitors and listened with intent. Sometimes, she wished Kisuke would get to the point faster.

“So she devised all sorts of ways to hold her suitors at bay. The last challenge she presented was if any of the suitors can string her husband’s bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads, then he shall have her hand in marriage…” Kisuke shook his head at the awful reduction in story to keep Yoruichi from falling asleep, but chuckled at the gleam in Yoruichi’s eyes, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.

“So, we devise a challenge.”

“Yes, Rui. We devise a challenge,” Kisuke agreed.

“We need to work on your hakuda more,” Yoruichi nodded matter-of-factly.

“Eh?” Kisuke’s surprise made Yoruichi gleefully clap her hands. It’s not often she catches _him_ off guard. “What’s going on?”

“You’re the challenge,” Yoruichi replied. “If he can defeat you in a competition of shunpo, hakuda, and kidō, then he shall have my hand in marriage.” Yoruichi poked a finger dead center of Kisuke’s chest. “So you better not lose.”

“Ooh, that seems hardly fair!” Kisuke complained.

Yoruichi’s face lost its playfulness and sobered, wrenching Kisuke’s heart. Yoruichi shifted so she straddled Kisuke’s lap instead, and placed both her hands on his shoulders. Kisuke’s hands rested on her hips. “I know, Kisuke. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. We’ll figure out something else.”

Kisuke’s eyebrows drew together in an uncharacteristic frown. “No, we won’t. I’ll fight them. I won’t lose,” Kisuke said solemnly. “I have every motivation not to lose. I don’t want you married off to someone who sees you as a prize.”

Yoruichi wrapped her arms around Kisuke’s neck and touched her forehead to his, eyes searching. “They will all see me as a prize, Kisuke. Only you and Tessai-kun don’t.”

Kisuke wrapped his arms around Yoruichi and crushed her fully against him, “Then Tessai and I will keep them all away from you.”

Yoruichi stopped breathing for a few heartbeats, allowing herself to enjoy such sentiment and dream that such possibilities existed. She couldn’t hold her friends to Kisuke’s impossible vow, and as much as she cared for her two best friends, as much as she loved Kisuke, they can’t live in fantasy forever, especially for souls like them where forever was reality. “Kisuke, you understand that this…” Yoruichi pulled back to motion at the area around them, “…is as far as we can go, right?”

Kisuke refused to let those words touch him and break him apart.

“Yes, Rui-chan. I understand that, but I honestly don’t care. As long as I can stay by your side, watch over you, protect you, I don’t care.” It was a lie. He did care that he couldn’t just, as the humans put it, ride off into the sunset with her. He would hang on to whatever he could to survive. As long as Yoruichi had a need for him, he’ll fight until he can’t anymore.

“You’re a horrible liar, my Kisuke,” Yoruichi mumbled just before she pressed her lips into his, fingers gently tugging and tracing the shells of his ears.

“Only because you know me so well,” Kisuke replied in all sincerity.

Yoruichi let those words wash over her for a few seconds before leaning forward and kissing Kisuke again. “Yes, I do, don’t I?”

“Mmhmm, and it’s very nice to be so well known.”

“Then you should reward me for knowing you so well,” Yoruichi nodded in mock seriousness, tracing Kisuke’s face with her finger.

“What would you like for me to do, your highness?” Kisuke chuckled as he earned himself another swat across the arm this time, but the sadness that was in Yoruichi’s eyes had finally lifted with the semblance of control back over her own destiny. Neither one of them knew if it will work, but it didn’t matter to Kisuke. He will find a way to make it work, for Yoruichi, for himself.

Yoruichi leaned forward, lips against Kisuke’s ear, “Love me, my Kisuke.”

Without another word, the two of them disappeared in a shunpo and onto a soft futon somewhere in the cave where Kisuke gave Yoruichi her reward with everything he had.

_~owari~_

**Author's Note:**

> It's been more than 10 years since I wrote fanfiction again, the last fandom I participated in (under a different name) was Yu Yu Hakusho. This was the first drabble that I wrote as an exercise to get back into writing after having been on Hiatus for too many years.
> 
> Thank you very much for reading! <3


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